"is" Just what IS it? Google references 2,860,138 pages. These are important pages however, news items in which IS is an important component. Google brings up 3,170,000,000 pages which include IS in one use or another. "It depends on the meaning of is" locates 11,300,000 hits. dictionary.com provides 18 results for IS. Merriam-Webster thought IS to be worthy of only 8 results. MSN Encarta only coughed up 7 results, but they is goodins! Whatever is is or isn't, it is controversial. It wasn't always like this. Kenneth Starr started the whole mess when he tried to corner Pres. Bill Clinton on Bill's very precise use of is. In fact, it could be said that the entire Impeachment debacle rested on Starr's puritanical interpretation of this double lettered word. Bill stressed this himself when cornered. Bill just pointed out what should have been obvious to the rest of us, all of us who are not Bill Clinton. We go about our daily lives, and throw is around with no more thought than we give to A, or THE or OR. It just shows to go ya that one 2 lettered word is worth a  dozen plausible deniabilities. But of course it all depends.